State TV cut in some areas of Ivory Coast

Posted: Friday, December 24, 2010

By Associated Press

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - Ivory Coast state television disappeared from the airwaves outside the nation's largest city late Thursday, a blow to the incumbent president's attempts to cling to power in the bloody aftermath of an election most of the world says he lost.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said at least 173 people had died in violence over the Nov. 28 runoff vote, and that government forces were blocking access to a possible mass grave. The U.N. deputy human rights commissioner in Geneva, Kyung-wha Kang, detailed hundreds of arrests and detentions, and dozens of cases of torture and mistreatment.

The state television channel controlled by incumbent Laurent Gbagbo continued to air in Abidjan, but only black and white snow appeared in at least six other cities around the West African nation just minutes before Ivorians sat down to their nightly newscast, residents told The Associated Press.